


Taako Interlude: Everything Falls Apart

by Buffintruder



Series: Angus McDonald, Boy Detective [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 19:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16332200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buffintruder/pseuds/Buffintruder
Summary: Taako’s life was filled with so many good things: lots of people he loved, a job he was passionate about, and a home he felt at peace in. He should have known this happiness couldn’t last.





	Taako Interlude: Everything Falls Apart

**Author's Note:**

> This started as something to help me figure out how I wanted to write the scene where Angus reunites with Taako. Then a month later, I had some things to procrastinate and this came out.  
> I’d strongly recommend against reading this until you've read Chapter 4 of the main story because there are spoilers here, plus this probably won't make a lot of sense.

Taako would later regret how excited he had been to receive the phone call that Wednesday afternoon. His initial feelings on the matter made no difference on the overall outcome, of course, but that didn't stop the nagging guilt.

In his defense, he didn’t know what the call would be about, and he was prepared to take any excuse to avoid his lab write-up.

One of the most important parts of science was writing everything down. In theory, Taako understood that. History was littered with people saying random shit and nobody bothering to check it for hundreds of years down the line. In more recent decades, people had faked studies that were later proven wrong because other people couldn’t replicate the results, despite knowing they were following the exact same procedures. Writing down everything that was done in an experiment was basically the thing that made modern science work.

That didn’t mean that Taako enjoyed actually doing it. 

He was sitting at one of the lab tables in the main room, staring at the conclusion he was supposed to be typing into his laptop. At least half of his brain was dedicated to finding some way of putting this off. To his relief, Taako didn’t even have to do anything for the opportunity to present itself.

“Taako?” Lucretia stuck her head out of the office. “There’s a call for you.”

He practically leapt off the stool, grateful for the opportunity to get out of doing his paperwork, even if it was only for a minute or so.

“It’s from the school,” Lucretia said, solemn in a way he hadn’t noticed before.

That gave Taako a pause. The only school she could be referring to was Angus’s, and they didn’t send out calls to parents in the middle of the day for no reason.

He couldn’t imagine what purpose this call served. Angus was the least likely person to get into trouble that Taako knew, and he was pretty sure that was the biggest reason parents and guardians were called like this. Even if he was getting detention, whatever Angus could have done would doubtless seem justified to everybody but the principal. He was too good of a kid for anything else.

It could also be an entirely different reason. Maybe Angus was being bullied, or maybe he had won an award. Maybe there was a gun or bomb threat, and they were calling to let him know the school was in lockdown and that nobody would be leaving for the next few hours.

Angus was supposed to be on a field trip that day though, so it probably wasn’t any of those options. It couldn’t be anything too bad, Taako figured. Even if Angus had punched Lucas Miller in the face or stolen some of his tech to bring back to the IPRE (especially if he had done these things), Taako would probably give the kid some kind of trophy rather than be angry at him.

Taako walked up to Lucretia and took the phone from her outstretched hand as the possibilities piled up in his head. 

“Hello?” Taako asked sharply, completely ready to defend Angus with all the intensity of an laser beam, even if it was over something as minor as a detention.

“Is this the parent or guardian of Angus McDonald?” the voice on the other end said. There was something about the tone that dropped a knot of worry into Taako’s stomach, and he wasn’t even sure why.

“Yeah, that’s me. Taako, you know, from TV?” he said, trying to muster up his confidence.

The voice moved past Taako’s awkward introduction as if he hadn’t said anything at all. “Your child has gone missing at the Miller Labs.”

Taako froze, his mind turning blank.

“The school is doing everything it can—” the voice continued, and suddenly Taako couldn’t bear to hear another word in that awful sympathetic and sincere tone.

“What do you mean?” he interrupted. The words came out high-pitched with panic, and his voice cracked at least twice, but he didn’t care. 

Angus was missing.  _ Angus _ was missing. Angus was  _ missing _ , and how was that even possible? He was the smartest, most self-reliant kid Taako had ever known, other than himself and—other than himself when he was that age.

“He went to the bathroom and never came back. The Miller Labs are being thoroughly searched, and we’ve gotten the police involved, but—”

Taako wrenched the phone from his ear with a shaking hand. He couldn’t hear these  _ lies _ anymore because there was no way that Angus could really be gone, and maybe as long as Taako didn’t know about it, it wouldn’t actually be true.

Part of him recognized that denial never helped anybody, but he still couldn’t bring himself to listen to anymore of the person on the phone.

“Are you—what’s going on, Taako?” Lucretia asked, her voice small and her eyes wide.

Taako shoved the phone into her hands. She could deal with it, and then he wouldn’t have to think about the impossible possibility that Angus was  _ gone _ . 

“Uh...” Lucretia said, but she lifted the phone to her ear, and began speaking with whoever was on the other end. Taako could see the moment she received the news because her gaze sharpened and her jaw clenched.

They talked more, but Taako couldn’t focus, lost in the swirl of his own thoughts. 

His life had felt like it was finally coming together, like the hole in his heart was being slowly filled in. He had a kid, a boyfriend, a bunch of friends he could rely on, all of whom got along and made him feel truly content for the first time Taako could remember.

But of course it was too good to last, and he should have realized that long before. He should have known something terrible would happen. Luck had lasted him ten years, with his steady job in the IPRE and the web of friendships he had built, but part of Taako was always aware it wouldn’t stay.

There was a reason he still lived in an apartment, even though he could have gotten a house if he wanted to. It was supposed to be a reminder that all this was temporary, just like everything in his whole life before had been. But he had gotten complacent anyway, started taking the stability in his life for granted, and now this happened.

“Fuck, Taako,” Lucretia said, and Taako realized that she no longer had the phone in her hand.

“I couldn’t—I couldn’t listen—” he tried to explain.

“It’s okay,” Lucretia said, blinking back tears in from her eyes. “Just, fuck.”

“Did they say anything else?” he asked. The understanding in Lucretia’s tone didn’t grate on his nerves, unlike the person on the phone. And if there was any information that would let Taako help, anything that would better prepare him for what was to come, he needed to know.

“Not really,” Lucretia said. “Just that Noelle went missing too.”

“They— they don’t think that  _ she _ kidnapped—” Taako couldn’t even finish the thought.

“Of course they do,” Lucretia said hollowly. “They don’t have any other suspects.” She took off her glasses and rubbed her face with both hands. “I don’t know what to do, Taako.”

He let out a snort. “My son is missing, and I can’t even process the fact. I have no fucking clue either.”

Lucretia made a muffled noise that almost sounded like she was laughing or maybe crying. “I was supposed to help him with his math homework tonight. Why is that all I can think about? That I probably won’t be able to do that tonight.”

Taako said nothing. He couldn’t really think of anything right at that moment. The only thing in his mind was some strange fear that whatever happened to Angus was somehow his fault. Like if he hadn’t met Angus on that train or given him magic lessons or adopted him, Angus would still be safe.

“Can I—can I hug you?” Lucretia asked.

Taako nodded, and he felt two arms wrap tightly around him. After a long moment, he let his head rest on Lucretia’s, leaning into the hug like it was the only thing keeping him grounded.

He didn’t even know  _ how  _ to think anymore, his thoughts nothing but a panicked mess of  _ this can’t be happening _ . He couldn’t deal with this loss, not again.

“Um.” Magnus’s voice came from behind. Taako lifted his head to see Magnus stopped a few feet away, his eyebrows furrowed. “Is everything alright?”

“Angus is missing,” Taako said, and he couldn’t even summon the energy he needed to explain.

His expression or voice or something must have gotten enough across though, because Magnus’s eyes widened. “Oh shit,” he said, and ran off.

A few moments later, he came back with Merle and Davenport.

“Is it true?” Davenport asked.

Taako felt Lucretia nod. “The police are involved and everything.”

“I think this goes without saying, but work is cancelled for the rest of today,” Davenport said. Taako knew things were really serious because neither Magnus nor Merle cheered or made any kind of quip.

Before he really knew what was going on, Taako found himself bustled into the passenger seat of his car, Magnus at the wheel. Time passed in a blurry haze and then he was at his home, and so was everyone else. Even Carey and Killian were there.

“Why are you all crashing my place?” Taako grumbled, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it if he was by himself.

Carey gave him a pointed look. “Like we’re going to leave each other alone right now?”

“If you steal all my food, you’re going to have to restock it,” Taako warned, then fled to his room where he could cry without anybody seeing.

Once inside, however, the tears pressing against the back of his eyes couldn’t bring themselves to fall. There wasn’t any reason to cry yet. It wasn’t like he  _ knew  _ something bad had happened to Angus. Even if it was the most likely option. Even if the not knowing felt even worse.

Minutes passed as Taako sat blankly on the edge of his bed. Something cold and trembling had flooded his entire body, and he couldn’t think of anything except Angus, and he couldn’t think at all, and he couldn’t feel properly, and he couldn’t break this cycle of numb panic or do  _ anything _ .

He tried taking a deep breath, but it didn’t make his anxiety vanish, and it didn’t bring Angus back to him, so he wasn’t even sure what the point was. He needed something to do, to rescue him from his drowning thoughts, but he had no will to do anything at all while Angus was still gone.

Being alone right now was agonizing, but he couldn’t think of anything worse than having other people around. He didn’t want to see their fear, their hopelessness stacking onto his in one awful mess of despair.

There was a third option though, and Taako blamed his state of incoherency for why it took him so long to think of it. He picked up his phone and called Kravitz.

It helped that Taako both trusted Kravitz completely and hadn’t known Kravitz for very long. He knew Kravitz would be supportive, but he wouldn’t be quite as wrapped up in everything as the IPRE or Taako’s other friends would be. Calling would make Taako feel less vulnerable as well, with his face and body language entirely out of the picture.

Kravitz picked up on the fourth ring. “Hello, Taako,” he answered, his voice turning warm and affectionate on Taako’s name.

“I—” Taako started, before realizing he had no idea how to say what he needed to say. The silence dragged on as he opened and closed his mouth with no words coming out.

“What’s wrong?” Kravitz asked.

That question, direct and to the point, unlocked the part of Taako’s brain that was in charge of language. “Angus went missing. He—the school called and...”

“What?” Kravitz exclaimed, and Taako could hear a small crash, as if Kravitz had bumped into something and knocked it over. “I—I’ll be right there.” And he hung up.

That wasn’t quite what Taako had wanted, but he figured it would do.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes, trying to ignore that awful sick feeling that had settled its way into his belly and refused to leave. All he wanted was Angus to be there with him, safe and unharmed. He didn’t care about whatever else happened.

About five minutes passed, but Taako barely noticed. Trapped in the same anxious state, every second lasted an eternity. Once the second was over, it blended into all the other seconds before until the past was nothing but a blurry haze of pain. Time was at once endless and meaningless.

The doorbell rang, and the noise from the living room suddenly increased. A door opened, the sound coming from somewhere down the hall, and then Taako could hear Magnus’s distant voice saying, “Uh, Kravitz?”

“Taako called me,” Kravitz replied.

“Oh. Yeah, come on in.”

Taako sighed, pushing himself off the bed and onto his feet. He peeked his head out the door. “Hi, Krav,” he said, unable to summon even a fraction of the enthusiasm he normally had for him.

“You must be Taako’s boyfriend,” Carey said from the kitchen where she was pouring tea into seven different cups. “I wish we could have met under better circumstances.”

“I wish so too,” Kravitz said, glancing away from Taako for a moment to look at her before turning back. “So what exactly happened with Angus?”

Taako found himself a seat on the couch, numbly listening as Davenport explained everything they knew. At some point, Carey passed him his cup of tea, but he barely noticed as he sipped at it. Nothing felt real anymore except the panic gnawing at his belly.

“Taako?” Kravitz asked, after Davenport finished. “Can I talk to you privately?”

He glanced around at the room, at Carey and Lucretia curled up together on one chair, at Killian stress-cleaning his kitchen, at Merle who almost seemed to be in a meditative trance, at Magnus who was anxiously pacing across the room with tightly clenched fists. None of them were fine, but Taako didn’t think him sticking around would do anything to help.

“Sure, what is it?” Taako asked leading Kravitz to his room. “You got any of those investigative contacts you could call for help?”

Kravitz frowned at that, closing the door behind him. “Not exactly. But I might have some relevant information.”

“You do?” Taako asked, his heart clenching in painful hope. He had already taken a step closer to Kravitz, as if that would get him to Angus any faster, before he realized that Kravitz was looking even more grim than before. The suspicious part of Taako’s brain kicked into drive, and he wondered how Kravitz could know anything about Angus without playing some part in his disappearance, even if only by neglect.

“You know how Angus has been investigating my case?” Kravitz started, and something horribly like betrayal started building in Taako’s chest.

“Don’t tell me you encouraged him and got him in some kind of trouble!” Taako snapped.

Kravitz’s expression said it all.

“Tell me everything,” Taako demanded. A few minutes ago, he would have said that he couldn’t possibly feel any worse, but now somehow he did. “What were you investigating? Wait, no, is there anything you can tell me about where Angus is now?”

“Not really. No. There isn’t.” Kravitz looked down, rubbing the side of his face with one hand. “I still know nothing about who has been doing all this.”

“Then tell me everything you know,” Taako said coldly, crossing his arms.

Kravitz exhaled before straightening slightly, like he was steeling himself for something. “I want you to know that I was going to tell you all of this soon anyway. Even if nothing happened, I wasn’t going to keep it a secret. I’m sorry you’ll have to learn it this way instead.”

“About your case?” Taako asked, wishing he would hurry up and get to the point. Even if nothing Kravitz said would help them find Angus, Taako couldn’t bear the idea of not knowing all the facts he possibly could.

“No, about my profession,” Kravitz said. “You aren’t going to believe me, but I am a reaper under the employment of the Raven Queen.”

Taako let out a burst of bitter of laughter. That was ridiculous. Kravitz had to be joking, right? But Kravitz wasn’t the kind of person who would even think to make a joke in a time like this. Then again, Taako had thought Kravitz wasn’t the kind of person who could possibly be a reaper, but one of these assumptions had to be wrong.

“Excuse me?” Taako said.

Kravitz stuck out his hand, and a scythe materialized into it. A black cloak formed itself around his head, long cloth flowing out behind him. His face and hands dissolved until there was only bone. In front of Taako stood someone looking exactly like how he would imagine the Grim Reaper to be.

“I could cut a portal to the Astral Plane, if that would help you believe me,” came Kravitz’s voice from the skull of the skeleton.

Taako stared dumbfoundedly, unable to do or say or think anything. After a moment, Kravitz lowered his arm, his scythe and cloak disappearing as his skin grew back.

“Uh... Taako?” Kravitz asked.

“You know what?” Taako said, throwing his hands into the air. “I. Don’t. Care. You lied to me, and maybe I should be angry about that, or maybe I should be understanding, but I don’t give  _ a single fuck _ . You’re going to tell me everything you know about Angus and the case. I can only deal with so much crap in one day, homie, so you better make this issue worth its while.”

Kravitz opened his mouth, protest written into his lifted eyebrows, then he sighed and began to explain everything.

He talked about his investigation into the Miller Labs, and how their employees and research disappeared. He talked about dead bodies and missing souls, and Angus’s theory on how the memory of the victims were erased. He talked about how it was likely that two former members of the IPRE had been taken and forgotten as well.

When he finished, Taako grabbed a pen and some notebook paper he had lying around in his room. “There is no way in hell, I’m forgetting about the dumb nerd,” Taako said. Just the thought of it tugged at some horror buried deep within in his heart. With a shaking hand, he scribbled  _ Angus McDonald, Boy Detective, and your nerdy son _ onto the paper.

“I’m not going to let it happen to him!” Kravitz said fiercely. “I don’t care what I have to do, but I  _ will _ find him before they touch him.”

There was a kind of desperation in his voice that perfectly matched the swirling, shaking emotions rolling around in Taako’s head. Despite himself, he could feel his anger and betrayal at Kravitz fade. Taako’s priority was getting Angus, and if that was also Kravitz’s priority, then for now, they were on the exact same side. Nothing else mattered.

In the calmest voice Taako could muster, he asked, “Is there literally  _ anything _ else I can do to help Angus? Because otherwise, I’m going to stick with this.”

Kravitz hesitated. “I... I can’t do anything without knowing where Angus is. I gave him a raven feather that would call me to him, but it hasn’t been set on fire yet.”

“So he has to burn it for you to know?” Taako asked, turning back to his paper to get as much down as he possibly could.

“Yes.”

Taako scoffed. “I’m sure that in whatever dangerous situation he could possibly get himself into, he’ll always have the time to randomly set fire to things.”

Shifting uncomfortably, Kravitz said, “I... didn’t really think that through, did I.”

“Well, it’s too late to fix it now,” Taako muttered, not even bothering to look up from his writing. “Unless your death magic can do special stuff that regular magic can’t.”

“Sorry...” Kravitz said.

“Yeah,” Taako said shortly, trying not to show that part of him had been disappointed when this far-fetched hope had been smashed. Even reapers had to follow some laws of magic, Taako figured.

“I think I’m going to tell the others everything I know,” Kravitz said, after a bit. “If there’s even the tiniest chance that one of them will catch something I missed, I’m going to take it..”

Taako nodded. He latched onto this new piece of hope as if every other one hadn’t been crushed at some point or another. Part of him believed that if only he could think clearly enough, there would be some way to get Angus out of this situation. His heart told him it was impossible, but if something happened to Angus and Taako hadn’t done his absolute best to prevent it, he would never forgive himself.

“Give me a sec,” Taako said, scribbling down another sentence onto his summarization of Angus. The notes weren’t even in any kind of linear order, just thoughts and observations about Angus, random facts and feelings.

“I don’t think I’ll forget about him, no matter what happens. I didn’t forget about the people from the Miller Lab,”  Kravitz said. “So I won’t ever stop looking for Angus until I find him.”

It wasn’t much of a comfort, but it did ease a bit of the added the panic that had been building up. It wouldn’t stop Taako from imagining Angus alone in the hands of people who wished him harm while everyone who had ever cared about him couldn’t even think to search for him, but it did help.

“Okay,” Taako said. He knew he wouldn’t be able to write down every detail of Angus’s life, not if he wanted to spend his time thinking of how to find him, so he stopped after giving the basic outline. “Is there somewhere you could take this that nobody could ever get to?”

“Yeah,” Kravitz said, reaching out to take the sheet of paper. “I have an office in the Eternal Stockade. No living human or ghost could reach it there.”

“Good,” Taako said coldly. If worst things came to worst, at least he would have this minor victory over whoever was stealing souls and erasing memories.

Kravitz looked Taako dead in the eye. “But I’m not going to let it come to this. This paper isn’t going to be necessary.”

Taako was too cynical to believe in every promise some guy made when there was no way anybody could know if it could be kept or not. Still, he nodded and let Kravitz’s determination booster his own. “Get back soon, because we are going to sniff these fuckers out if it’s the last thing we do.”

“Absolutely,” Kravitz said, materializing the scythe in his hand again. He swung it in a large rectangular shape, and Taako could glimpse a sea filled with the swirling outlines of human forms. “I’ll be right back.”

Then he stepped through, and the doorway vanished behind him.

Taako took a deep breath, trying to shove away all the weird emotions fogging up his mind. He needed his clearest thoughts if he was going to figure anything out. When Kravitz came back, his family was going to do everything in their power to find their youngest member.


End file.
